Facilities increased to woo public servants ahead of polls: experts
Shakhawat Hossain
A substantial increase in the perks and salary of public servants in the present tenure of the government has failed to make any significant improvement in the delivery of services by government employees.
Experts noted that complaints about ‘under-the-table activities’ from the service takers did not drop although the public servants had been receiving almost double salary since 2016, easy car loan and home loan.
The experts accused the ruling Awami League of failure to give strong message for improving the service delivery against the backdrop of continued allegation that the facilities and perks were enhanced only to appease the public servants ahead of the 11th parliamentary polls due by January 28, 2019.
Former caretaker government adviser MM Shawkat Ali told New Age on October 16 that the public servants were yet to improve the service delivery despite augmentation of the digital technologies.
The major reason for such failure was higher demand from people and degradation of moral values among the public servants, he said.
The retired bureaucrat lamented that the under-the-table activities had not decreased at all despite a substantial increase in the salary and perks in the past few years.
State-minister for finance and planning MA Mannan denied the allegation, claiming that the service delivery had improved as the government officials became more public-oriented following the increase in salary and perks.
He told New Age on Saturday that the increase in the perks and salary of the public servants was imperative as the park and package in the country was one of the lowest in South Asia.
He, however, noted it would take time to get expected improvement in service delivery from the public servants.
Salary of almost all public servants became double with the implementation of the current pay scale in 2016, when the Bangla New Year celebration allowance was also introduced.
The government also introduced Tk 30 lakh car loan facility with a monthly maintenance allowance of Tk 50,000 for deputy secretaries in 2017, a lucrative facility that was earlier limited to joint secretaries and above.
Former interim government adviser Mirza Azizul Islam said that the car loan for deputy secretary-level government officials was meaningless as it would increase government expenditure.
The policy was made mainly to woo government officials, he said.
State minister Mannan said the government was always ready to accept constructive criticism and they were always confident about the support of the public servants.
In August, the government increased home loan ceiling to Tk 75 lakh from previous Tk 1.2 lakh and decreased the interest rate to 5 per cent from previous 10 per cent for the public servants.
A demand for an adjustment to inflation in line with recommendation made by a secretary-level committee is now under consideration, said finance division officials.
At a post-budget briefing in June, finance minister AMA Muhith boasted that except the present government nobody gave so much facility to the public servants.
Transparency International Bangladesh executive director Iftekharuzzaman said that offering higher facilities to the public servants might be an attempt to woo them ahead of the general elections, as major target of prevention of corruption and improvement in service delivery remained elusive.
He said that there was no concrete data to assess the service delivery by the public servants, but the prevalence of corruption and amount of bribe realised by the public servants increased.
Quoting TIB study ‘Corruption in Service Sector: National Household Survey 2017’ released in August, Iftekharuzzaman said that the law enforcement agencies emerged as the most corrupt institution in the country’s service sector, followed by Department of Immigration and Passport and Bangladesh Road Transport Authority.
According to the study, 73 per cent service seekers fall prey to corruption of law enforcement agencies while about 61 per cent have to pay bribe. On an average, a household pays Tk 6972 to the sector.
The estimated amount of bribe is Tk 106.89 billion, 3.4 per cent of the revised budget for 2016-17 and 0.5 per cent of the GDP.
The rate of corruption and bribery is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, the study found.
Many complained that in most land offices they had to pay additional money to get services for land registration and mutation or any other any land-related work even though the government had increased salaries of the employees and officials substantially.
Even for health services, people were compelled to pay kickbacks to employees for serials at public hospitals in the wake of patient burden, service seekers alleged.
There have been widespread allegations that middlemen collect money for ‘smooth services’ at passport offices, Bangladesh Road Transport Authority offices and those of the utility services, including gas, electricity and water, as the clients otherwise have to suffer in getting desired services from the agencies concerned.
Sufferers alleged that they found hardly any changes in terms quality services at public offices despite pay hikes on regular basis due to lack of proper monitoring over service providing agencies.
The government, meanwhile, gave promotions to various levels in the civil bureaucracy although there were no vacancies, apparently to appease a section of officers.
In its latest move, the government on October 24 promoted 256 senior assistant secretaries to the rank of deputy secretary, raising the number of deputy secretaries to 1,790.
Consequently, the number of deputy secretaries had gone double the number of approved posts in the organogram, said a senior official concerned.
On September 20, 154 deputy secretaries were promoted to the rank of joint secretary, raising the number joint secretaries to 759 against 350 posts in the approved structure.
Earlier on August 29, the government promoted 154 joint secretaries to the rank of additional secretaries making the figure at least five times higher than the approved structure, official records show.
Courtesy: New Age Oct 28, 2018
